Anselmians seal runner up spot in Regional 1 North West after win over Blackburn

With a couple of players unavailable due to injury and work commitments, Will Sass and Max Frodsham were included into the match day squad. With Saints playing with the strong breeze in the fist half, it was Saints' number 13 Olly Dodd who intercepted a loose pass to race 30m and open the scoring for Saints, with an easy kick for Nick Baldwin making it 0-7 with four minutes on the clock. Within three minutes of the restart, Myles Holmes found space to power over the line shrugging off two tacklers to score in the corner and with a strong wind and a tight angle again Baldwin slotted between the posts for 0-14 after just eight minutes.

With stout defence, two scoring chances for Blackburn where thwarted and with Liam Sadler, playing his last game before retirement, utilising the wind Saints again found themselves in the opposing 22 where Ewan Nolan found room to get over the whitewash for Saints' third try, this time unfortunately missed by Baldwin. This spurred on Blackburn boosted by vocal support from a decent crowd to score the next three tries, however with none of them converted the half time whistle went with the score at 15-19 and Saints' runaway start thwarted. With Saints now against the wind, Blackburn tried to mirror the kicking game Saints had used in the first half, however they over kicked and kicked the ball out on the full several times giving the momentum back to Saints who where now playing much more with ball in hand.



After dominant forward pressure, Ben Jones jinked his way through a gap to score under the posts to relieve the pressure and put a bit of space between the scores, with Baldwin's conversion making the score 15-26 with Saints due at least a bonus point in the game. However, Blackburn never gave up and a converted try after constant pressure was the reward bringing the score back to a respectable 22-26. Saints now made a couple of changes which seemed to revitalise Saints with first Theo Chapman then Joe Sanders scoring, both converted by Jones, who took on the kicking duties from Baldwin and stretched the score to 22-40.

Blackburn where not yet finished and a couple of minutes after they managed to score again, their fifth try of the game pulling the score back to 29-40. With the clock ticking down, the last try of the game came from Liam Sadler with a dart from the base of a ruck to score between the posts, a fitting end to his rugby career. With Jones kicking the conversion the man in the middle blew the whistle with the score Blackburn 29, Saints 47 after a great game of rugby played in good spirits by both teams.

The win sealed Saints runners up slot in the league six points behind winners Rossendale..